They own it

by | Dec 22, 2016 | Editor's Blog, NC Politics | 31 comments

The GOP continues to bring shame to the state of North Carolina. Last week, they stripped power from the newly elected Democratic governor and gave it to themselves. Yesterday, they spent $42,000 of the people’s money just to go into session and come out with nothing. In the process, they proved they can’t be trusted to hold up their end of a bargain and they left HB2, the discriminatory law that’s cost the state hundreds of millions of dollars, intact.

Before any argument about who is to blame for yesterday’s debacle, remember a few points. The GOP passed HB2 and the governor signed it into law. The GOP has super-majorities in both houses of the legislature and can repeal it anytime. Charlotte upheld its end of the bargain and repealed its ordinance in its entirety. Roy Cooper is not the governor. Pat McCrory still is.

In 2002, Secretary of State warned against an invasion of Iraq, telling George Bush, if you break it, you own it. Republicans should have heeded this advice when they rushed to pass HB2 in a hastily called special session of the legislature last March. Yesterday, they broke it more and they will still own it.

As usual, Republicans are blaming everybody but themselves for the debacle. They can’t trust the cities. Roy Cooper is a meany. The Senate Democrats didn’t go along when the GOP moved the goal posts again. The liberal media, blah, blah, blah. The only person they didn’t blame is Pat McCrory, the guy who lost his seat because of the bill they passed.

If Republicans really want to blame somebody, they should be pointing the finger at Lt. Governor Dan Forest who was actively trying to scuttle the deal. Forest urged social conservatives to vote against the bill. After Charlotte repealed its ordinance, he put out a statement that said, “If HB2 is repealed, there will nothing on the books to prevent another city or country to take us down this road again.” After that, President Pro-tem Phil Berger added his moratorium on allowing cities and counties to enact non-discrimination ordinances. That move effectively broke the deal. Why would anyone believe the GOP would lift the moratorium as long as they’re in power?

The GOP has the power to end HB2. More importantly, they have a responsibility to do it. Unfortunately, they’re held hostage by extremists in their caucus who believe that governments should be able to discriminate against LGBT citizens. North Carolina will continue to pay a price and the GOP will continue to get the blame.

31 Comments

  1. Ebrun

    Sure,.-Dg.–Graham-and-McCain-both-opposed-Trump’s-candidancy-and-were-very-successful,-right?–Oh-no,-that’s-not-right–Trump-steamrollered-over-their-opposition-to-his-candidacy.–Same-thing-will-happen-in-the-GOP-controlled-Congress.

    And-BTW,-Medicaid,-not-Medicare,-will-be-the-first-entitlement-program-to-be-reformed-by-the-Republican-Congress

    (Excuse-the-hyphens,-space-bar-on-keyboard-won’t-work.)

    • Ebrun

      You’re right, Dg,HB2 allows private entities to choose whatever arrangements they feel best supports their needs and the needs of their customers and employees. Under the Charlotte ordinance, city government dictated to private businesses how they would have had to manage their bathroom, locker room and dressing room facilities.

      • Ebrun

        Because we conservatives assume private businesses are quite capable of managing their own facilities without heavy-handed government interference. For instance, I doubt any owner of a gym or fitness facility would make their women’s locker room assesable to their male customers. But under the Charlotte ordinance, they could not legally remove males who chose to enter female locker rooms.

  2. Trump's Chumps

    Comically
    Hysterical
    Uneducated
    Macho
    Political
    Saps

    It is fun. Try adding your own words to C H U M P S!

    Chronically
    Heartless
    Untruthful
    Makers of
    Phony
    Statutes

    • Ebrun

      Absolutely, great fun! That exercise should provide demoralized liberals with some relief from the hysteria and paranoia they will suffer for the next few years.

      • Ebrun

        They-didn’t-have-to-deal-with-it-before-the-Charlotte-transgender-access-ordinance-was-passed.–Separate-male-female-facilities-were-maintained.-The-Charlotte-ordinance-would-have-made-maintenance-of-separate-male-female-lockers-rooms-illegal-in-the-City.

      • Trump's chumps

        There will be no hysteria here. I have a BS degree from UNC, steady income, equity in my home, and a nest egg. I just hope the knuckle draggers like you who voted for the Cro-Magnon candidates are able to put 2 and 2 together when they have no medical care, no job, no food, and no place to live. The Bush regime emptied their bank accounts. Now Trump and his chumps will steal their retirement. To be honest, I feel sorry for them and more specifically YOU.

        You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make them drink.

  3. Dennis Rano

    …I did a cartoon about ‘dealing with the devil’ before the NCGA reneged on the part of the deal with Charlotte so the Dems have nobody to blame but themselves!

    • Dennis Rano

      “…on their part of the deal…” not “..the part…” Sorry don’t know how else to correct error

  4. Russell

    The monuments to the Confederate States of America must be “sold off”. Or since these monuments are to heroes of slavery for White Women, Black Women, and Slavers who consider themselves our betters and work to keep all labor in states of “food insecurity”, desperation & ignorance, we must destroy the totems of their arrogance.
    I want to see Silent Sam on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill laying flat in the dirt.
    The GOP is a Front for the C.S.A.
    The day of respect for these monuments to those intent on creating poverty for the honest labor and youth of the state, must be destroyed, or there will be from the “GOP” continuous attacks meant to suck the life out of the population.
    “One cannot reason with pigs and fishes.” Confucius, maybe, as is in the I Ching, the Chinese book of Changes.

    • Troy

      I disagree Russell.

      One may well conject that those monuments were erected to a premise, three letters engraved on them doesn’t make it so. We know that the majority of those who fought didn’t own slaves. They were for the most part poor or from poor families.

      Those monuments were erected as means of honoring and remembering those who didn’t come back. If you go North of the Mason-Dixon, you will see those same types of monuments erected there for the same reason in small towns there.

      Taking them down may have a cathartic effect for some but it will also destroy a reminder of how good men can perpetuate bad ideas and policies and how other men end up paying for them. They should instead remind us that good people will stand up and sacrifice themselves for something they believe in and even though history has proven those beliefs wrong, their bravery and sacrifice should not be trivialized or disgarded.

  5. Eric Smith

    I spent the entire dispiriting day at the General Assembly, starting at 10 AM. Thanks Tom for mentioning the role of Dan Forest in the demise of the repeal effort. Forest was gliding around the floor of the Senate talking to the Republican members like some snake oil selling televangelist. He even looks the part, as much as Franklin Graham does. Forest uses the podium to shut down Democratic remarks, while letting the Republicans blather on. I am surprised that Phil Berger puts up with the hubris of Dan Forest.

  6. larry

    So who got fooled? Again. Charlotte city council? Yall feel stupid and suckered yet? Roy Cooper for actually believing Berger and Company on anything? Did Cooper talk the Charlotte folks into this folly? Cooper got egg on face for that? When are Democrats in this State going to finally realize that they are not dealing with, bargaining with anything but nothing better than horse thieves. Berger and before his slimy side kick went to DC has made it clear that under no circumstances are they to be trusted because the simply do not believe in democracy. It will take a generation for this State to regain what we have lost since 2012. And as long a people don’t vote what do you expect. Maybe for the next few election cycles we can talk about jobs and economic development and less about lady parts. Maybe we can actually propose a map for recovering and get that message out and a lot less about social issues and not be drawn into social issue mud fights with the right as a distraction from the right simply not having a plan for the people of this State. Maybe we are slow but we are not stupid. Hagan ran a campaign that consisted of in excess of 60+% about womens issue and less that 20% about jobs. Hillary ran 80+% negative Trump ads. We got it…but little about what I know was a comprehensive plan for the future. Didn’t work here..Or Michigan, Or Wisconsin, Or Florida. Maybe the techno weenies can not be totally in charge of the campaigns for a while and actually do some face to face campaigning and not event photo ops…some Josh Stein first ran for the State Senate his dad canvassed my street. I will vote for Josh every time and every thing he runs for…Dads make great cases. Take to the streets and make the GOP work for it and never ever trust them.

  7. Joshua Horn

    All this talk of the “GOP” breaking their promise on HB2 seems pretty ridiculous to me. The “GOP” is an entity, it can’t make promises. Rep Moore, Sen Berger, and Gov McCrory can. They could promise to push for repeal, but if they couldn’t get enough other Republicans to go along with them, they couldn’t repeal HB2 by themselves.

    It appears the deal fell through because they couldn’t get the Democrats to agree to a repeal bill with the conditions that they needed to get Republican support. They couldn’t get a majority to agree to a repeal bill. How is that dishonest?

    I’m no fan of most of the GOP leadership in Raleigh, but I don’t think it’s fair to accuse them of lying, at least in this instance.

    • Eric Smith

      Roy Cooper seemed pretty definite that there were sufficient Democratic and Republican votes to repeal if Berger and Moore had put up a clean bill. The Charlotte City Council should have been more explicit about which part of the ordinance they were invalidating on Monday. That definitely poisoned the well.

    • Jay Ligon

      The Republicans are liars, because they say things that aren’t true.

      The untrue things that are said were not true when the Republicans said them, and the Republicans who said them knew it. It was their intention to deceive the public or Democrats or the press. We attribute their mendacity to the group as a whole, but, yes, their leaders – McCrory, Berger and Moore – speak those lies on behalf of the organization. If any of the Republican rank and file ever objected to the falsehoods and spoke out against the lying, that Republican would not a liar, but the rank and file never object to the lies. They endorse them.

      The HB2 scam is only the most recent example. The explanations offered for HB2 were completely dishonest. HB2 is a dishonest law, enacted by dishonest legislators to solve a problem the state does not have. After they were caught, they have told a number of whoppers to avoid responsibility.

      Another recent example was the suppression of the votes of black North Carolinians. I didn’t call them liars. The court called them liars. Under the guise of preventing the voter fraud that does not exist, Republicans voted “with surgical precision” to deny black people the vote. Top Republicans have admitted that they expected to suppress Democrat participation in the elections in this state and other states (Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Michigan) where the same kinds of laws have been enacted. This is a racist law which denies a group of North Carolinians an important right of citizens on the basis of race. So Republicans are both liars and racists.

      Gov. McCrory campaigned on the promise that he would not change existing abortion laws, then he signed an abortion law. This is only one instance of the governor’s dishonesty. Good riddance.

      The recent General Assembly was convened by the Republicans to deal with the areas of the state hardest hit by Hurricane Matthew. That was a lie. They called the GA into session to strip away the powers of the incoming Democratic governor.

      If their lips are moving, they are lying about something.

    • Kim

      The Republicans said they would repeal HB2 cleanly, then they added a condition that limits city rights. Republicans are all about less government involvement and regulations until a city does something that goes against their opinion or religious beliefs.
      They are dishonest and there is no way for them to spin it differently. They made a deal with Charlotte. Charlotte upheld their part of the deal and the NC Republican legislators did not.

    • Steve

      Bait and Switch. They had a deal. Republicans balked. The deal with strings kept the discrimination in place.

  8. Percy Flowers' Nephew

    I am a native North Carolinian who is deeply saddened by all of the harm HB2 has brought to my home state. I am also involved in regional economic development, and my contacts in the Southeast have convinced me that between HB2, the loss of the film industry tax credits, damage to the state’s brand, and the overall impression of instability and unpredictability that the majority legislative party has fostered over the last 6 years, we have already lost a decade or more in economic development compared to the states that should be our economic development peers. Think Virginia, South Carolina, and Georgia.

    My question for you, Thomas, and for our statewide media, is this – if HB2 was actually aimed at some sort of actual or even a perceived public safety threat (witness Dan Forest’s and Franklin Graham’s comments over the last 24 hours), why does it not contain any type of enforcement mechanism or any penalties, criminal or civil, for violating it? This omission of any type of enforcement language whatsoever has always seemed to me to demonstrate beyond all doubt the true motives behind the bill, and a way to highlight the absurdity of the hole we keep digging for ourselves as a state.

    Thank you for your continued good work on this blog, and for your commitment to North Carolina.

    • Norma Munn

      Your point on the lack of penalties in HB2 makes sense. Perhaps I overlooked the information, but I do not recall its having been pointed out previously. I wonder how many supporters realize this. Would like to hear Dan Forest and Franklin Graham explain this to those enamored of the two men. Be an interesting town hall meeting, to say the least.

      Sadly, we are now all stuck with even more hostility and mistrust, if that is possible. Personally, I never expected the GOP to repeal HB2 no matter what Charlotte did. I would have liked to be wrong.

      • Jay Ligon

        There is no penalty for violating the toilet law – no fine, no jail-time, nothing. This has been mentioned here in the past along with the impossibility of enforcing the law (no one carries a birth certificate with them in America.) No self-respecting police officers want the job of sitting in front of the state’s bathrooms checking genitals against the gender noted on the birth certificate when there is no penalty for failure to comply with the law. If there are some cops who are eager to do that job, we should worry about them.

        The proponents of HB2 cannot name a single case in any courtroom in any county in the state where the bathroom law would have made anyone safer. Everyone acknowledges the dangers of drugs, or drunk driving or murder, but HB2 is a statute in search of an offender. The cop would, one supposes, issue a warning: “Hey, don’t do that anymore.”

        Hardly worth the hundreds of millions of dollars we have lost in business.

    • Ebrun

      Any potential enforcement of HB2’s bathroom provisions would involve a trespassing complaint. If a person appearing as a man enters a ladies locker room, nothing would happen unless someone in the locker room or the manager of the facility objected and called security or local law enforcement. If the person appears to law enforcement to be in violation of the law, the subject could be asked to leave. If the subject refuses, that person could be arrested and charged with trespassing or failing to follow a lawful order. At a court trial, the person charged would have an opportunity to prove he/she was in the appropriate facility based on their actual gender.

      While this is not a likely scenario, this is how enforcement of a state law like HB2 could be handled. More likely, a warning would be issued to the offending individual and no arrest would be made. But any enforcement action would most likely be precipitated by a citizen complaint.

      • Jay Ligon

        …and “void for vagueness.” Violates due process. Impossible to enforce. Unless you find a Republican hack on the bench to violate the Constitution.

      • Ghost of Elections Past

        Don’t you EVER give it up, Ebrun? Trespassing is usually a high-acquittal offense. A necessary element of the crime to be proven is “knowledge.” The prosecution must prove that the defendant had knowledge that he/she was wrongfully intruding upon the property which must carry some EASILY SEEN notice or the defendant must have been told to exit the property.

        In trespassing cases of various types, I’ve probably gotten at least 50% of my clients acquitted. As others have commented, the typical prosecutor has enough cases without getting more “trash” cases such as enforcement of the “potty law.” I’m sure that with Republican budgets, law enforcement will just love having some rabid fundamentalist call them to complain when he/she sees a transgender neighbor enter the “wrong” bathroom. And, will our beloved General Assembly now pass a law requiring toilet facilities to undergo the additional expense and ugliness of posting large notices of the “potty law.” Aren’t Republicans supposed to be against more stupid and burdensome regulations.

        Democrats sometimes overspend while trying to perform beneficial social deeds. However, Republicans appear ready to waste any amount of public money on trash issues as long as it kow-tows to the gullible and ignorant.

        • Ebrun

          More than three, D.g. Several in Washington state which has a state law similar to the Charlotte ordinance. And there have been two or three instances at Target stores where male perverts with access to women’s dressing rooms have taken photos of women undressing. In fact, Target’s transgender access policies have caused so many problems that the Corporation is spending millions to retrofit all their restrooms and dressing rooms with single stall rooms with locks.

        • Ebrun

          It’s not important what the charge is. It could be disorderly conduct, disturbing the peace, failure to follow a lawful order or trespassing. The issue being addressed here is how would HB2 be enforced. The obvious answer is that it would only need to be enforced if there was a citizen complaInt.

          This is the case with many laws criminal laws. Law enforcement can’t be expected to prevent all criminal acts such as assault, illegal entry or trespassing. Legal action is taken when the victim files a complaint with the appropriate authorities.

          And with regard to bathroom access, it really doesn’t matter if the alleged offender is not prosecuted. The primary purpose here is to prevent or discourage males from accessing female bathrooms and other gender specific facilities, and to remove them from the facility if they are the subject of a citizen complaint.

      • Ebrun

        In the absence of HB2 and of the Charlotte LGBT ordinance, how would law enforcement authorities handle a situation where a male dressed as a woman entered a women’s public restroom and women using the same facility became aware of the ruse and complained to the management or to law enforcement?

    • Gerrick Brenner

      Very good point. Very good question. If HB2 does address a real threat, then where is the enforcement mechanism?

    • MikeW

      I read comments below and I frankly can’t understand why folks just buy the narrative they’re fed.

      This “Toilet” law only applies to municipalities and it does not discriminate, in fact, it prevents it. The law states that NO state, local, or city government can at any time enact a law or ordinance that dictates bathroom policy.

      So, why is there no enforcement? Becuase, there is nothing to enforce. If the Bill is violated, then the courts are compelled to shoot down the offending ordinance or law.

      When this law came out it did place some restrictions on the state, first bathroom policies of schools and state-funded colleges were set. I’ll be clear: The bill ensured that schools must keep gender-classed restrooms.

      • Ebrun

        That’s right, Mike. And the “policy” is especially important with respect to public schools, particularly junior highs and high schools. Under HB2, school authorities (schools boards and Principals) would be required to enforce school rules that prevent anatomical males from having access to female locker and dressing rooms.

Related Posts

GET UPDATES

Get the latest posts from PoliticsNC delivered right to your inbox!

You have Successfully Subscribed!